Bitcoin Core Node Dominance Slips to 77.2%
A fundamental schism in the Bitcoin development community has fractured the network's node landscape, directly fueling the current debate over transaction data. The conflict ignited in late October 2025 when Bitcoin Core developers controversially removed the 80-byte limit on the OP_RETURN function, opening the door for a flood of non-financial data from protocols like Ordinals. This decision caused Bitcoin Core's historical market share of nearly 98% of all nodes to fall to 77.2%.
In response, the Bitcoin Knots client, which opposes such network use, saw its market share climb to 22.7%. This faction is now driving support for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 110, which was introduced by pseudonymous developer Dathon Ohm in December. The proposal, which seeks a temporary, 12-month reduction in data limits, has already gained signals of readiness from 7.5% of all Bitcoin nodes, exclusively from Bitcoin Knots clients.
Back Warns BIP-110 Is an "Attack on Credibility"
Blockstream CEO Adam Back has forcefully opposed the proposed change, framing it as a dangerous intervention that undermines the network's integrity. In a statement on Sunday, Back labeled BIP-110 an "attack on Bitcoin's credibility" and a "lynch mob attempt to push changes there is not consensus for." While Back has previously stated that Ordinals-like spam has "no place in the timechain," he argues that the problem is an "annoyance" that does not justify a consensus-level change with potential side effects, such as rendering certain unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) unspendable.
The proposal's creator, Dathon Ohm, acknowledged the theoretical risk but stated the BIP was designed to "avoid affecting any known use cases." Supporters of Ordinals, such as the protocol's leader Leonidas, argue that the ecosystem has been a net positive, contributing over $500 million in transaction fees to bolster Bitcoin's security budget—a growing concern as the block subsidy diminishes with each halving.
Ordinals Fee Revenue Collapses From $10M Peak
The argument for Ordinals' economic necessity has weakened significantly as their activity has plummeted. After reaching a peak on December 16, 2023, when miners collected almost $10 million in fees from inscriptions in a single day, the revenue stream has collapsed. By the end of 2025, data from Dune Analytics showed Ordinals fees consistently generating less than $10,000 per day for miners.
This sharp decline in revenue makes it difficult to argue that non-financial transactions are a reliable source of income for miners or a sustainable solution to Bitcoin's long-term security budget. The evaporating fee market instead adds urgency to the technical debate, strengthening the case for those who believe protocol-level fixes like BIP-110 are required to preserve the network's primary function as a monetary system.
